Followed by an Angel
by FirstOne
Summary: Dan's life was the same each day in Newy Yor City, and he was alway getting steped on by other people (Metaphorically) and never really could stand up for himself, then he met her. Based on the book Guardian.
1. Her

Followed by an Angel

Have you ever had something happen to you that made you think, "These things happen to other people not me!"? I have, in fact until recently, nothing ever seemed too happened to me, until I met her. It was a cold, rainy afternoon in New York City. I was walking down the street, hoping to catch a cab so I wouldn't have to listen to my boss' persistent yelling. "Johnson! You're 4 minutes late, again! If this keeps up, we'll be looking at LETTING YOU GO!" Mr. Gorder, my boss, was the type of person who needed everything to be just so. He was not a perfectionist, he was an extreme perfectionist. You got to the office at 9:00, not 9:01, not 8:59, 9:00. If something was wrong, then he would begin to yell until he turned an odd shade of purple and stopped to breath, or if saw something else wrong.

So, back to the streets of New York, caching a cab any day is hard. On a rainy day, you need "Matrix" like skills to avoid either being soaked by a cab speeding through a puddle, or to avoid a cab pulling up next to you, in a puddle. Six or seven cabs had ignored me, thus far, and I was getting a little annoyed. On the plus side though, I hadn't gotten wet at all…yet. Finally a cab pulled up to the curb, didn't soak me, and it looked like it was in service as well. I reached for the door handle, but before I could even touch it, a woman grabbed the handle and jumped inside. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you need a cab too?" the woman asked politely.

"Uh, yea, but that's ok, I can wait"

"I know, lets just share this cab, you wouldn't happen to be headed to central Manhattan, would you?"

"Actually I am."  
"Then hop in!"

I got in, a little surprised at this woman's generosity. I had never met anyone who did that in New York during rush hour. "33 Central Ave, the Finnius Inc. complex please, and you?"

"Actually, that's where I'm going as well."

"What a coincidence! I'm Sarah, It's my first day at Finnius Inc. I just moved here from London." That explained her accent.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dan."

Our cab ride to Finc. (A nickname my coworkers and I had given our office) was virtually silent from there. It was strange, Sarah seemed to have a sort of aura of friendliness and joy around her. I took a good look at her. Her red hair was tied neatly in a bun with two chopsticks in it. She was wearing a tan suit with a tan skirt and looked very professional, but at the same time she looked friendly. When we finally arrived, we both found out we were in the same department and on the same floor, I volunteered to show her around for the first few days. "Just a few words of warning, watch out for Mr. Gorder, he's our boss and the resident hyper-perfectionist." Sarah merely smiled and said "Oh people tend to warm up to me right away."

Sarah was right, Mr. Gorder not only talked in a normal voice, but he smiled too. As we got off the elevator, I looked at my watch and groaned. 9:05. Mr. Gorder was going to be turning many different shades of purple today. We rounded the corner that led to our cubicles and stopped. "JOHNSON!" yelled an all too familiar voice. "YOU…..you…you…are the most gorgeous human ever to walk this earth."

"Excuse me?" I said, more then a little surprised.

"Not you, her…" Mr. Gorder's eyes were nearly popping out of his head. He was drooling while staring at Sarah.

"I'm Sarah Torris, I transferred here from the London branch." She said, extending her hand with a forced smile.

"Well…..I'm sure you'll fit in nicely. JOHNSON! What are you doing still here! GET TO WORK!" Mr. Gorder really should have been a prison guard, but that's just my opinion and that of just about every one of his employees. As Sarah and I began to walk to our cubicles, I noticed Mr. Gorder still drooling. I chuckled to my self and went into my cubicle to waste even more of my life pushing paper.

I found myself looking at the wall that separated my cubical from Sarah's every five minutes. Little did I know that there was some one watching me. "Hey there lover-boy" I jumped and turned to see who it was. "Jesus Christ! Will, you scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry, it's a habit. No rehab for it, what's a guy to do?" Will was the kind of guy who you would expect to be ex-KGB or something. He always snuck up on you, not intentionally, but managed to scare you every day. He was always watching, not anything or anyone in particular, but just taking everything in. He was an easy going, blend in with the shadows, observer kind of person. Not to mention he had a slightly twisted sense of humor. "You've been making eyes at the girl since you two walked in to gather. I think someone's got a crush."

"Jeez, is it that obvious?" At that moment, Harmony came over. Harmony describes herself as a walking paradox, and I am forced to agree with her. She is the polar opposite of the corporate image, hair a different color each week, so many earrings that she looked like she got into a fight with a nail gun, and an odd hippie-Goth wardrobe. She strives to be the opposite of her name. "Hey guys! Wasup?"

"Oh nothing, except Dan's falling in love."

"What? Are you kidding? Who is she? Or he?"

"Funny Harmony, SHE just transferred here from the London Branch, we shared a cab on the way here this morning. Her name's Sarah and-"

"And I can hear ever word of you conversation." Came a British voice from the cubicle next to mine. Harmony and Will burst out laughing and didn't stop for about 5 or so minutes. "Now th-that's good!" Harmony managed to get out in between laughs.

"Well Dan, since you're in love with me, let's go get some coffee." Said Sarah as she stood up from her cubicle.

"Hah! At this rate, they'll be sleeping with each other by noon!" Will also liked to make snide comments, Sarah's response was to walk up to him, and tighten his tie, a lot.

"Ooo. He's gonna need some stitches for his dignity." Harmony said with a chuckle as Will gasped for breath.


	2. Coffee and Power

The rain hadn't stopped yet, so I grabbed my umbrella as Sarah and I headed out. It was only about half a block to The Caffeine Bean, the local coffee shop. We didn't talk much on the way there, we were trying to avoid the splashes of speeding cabs and other passing vehicles. The Caffeine Bean's neon sign was like a beacon of hope, its familiar yellow and green lights showing the way. It was a slow day, there were only about five people inside, there's normally around twenty plus. We ordered our coffee and found a table next to a big plate glass window facing the street. We sipped in silence for a while.

"So, you grew up in…..?" Sarah asked.

"In Minnesota, the Minneapolis area, but we moved some."

"Oh, ok." We sat in silence some more. "Well this is………awkward." She said, pointing out the obvious.

"Yea, it is." More silence, then Sarah's phone rang.

"Hello?...When? God, that's in five minutes! Ok thanks, we'll get over there!"

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Gorder just called a staff meeting, it starts in less then five minutes, time to motor!"

We practically sprinted back to the Finc. Complex, slowed down just enough to show our company IDs to the guard, almost knocked several people over while running up the stairs, and finally made it to the conference room, soaked. "Johnson, you're on time for once! Sit down and we'll begin." It turned out that Mr. Gorder had called us all under the pretense of a corporate emergency to tell us that he was getting promoted, a raise, and that he would be naming his successor. "Joy," I thought to myself, "another possible pay increase goes up in smoke while the blob running this place is going to get a Minnie-Me for himself to run the office." He went on for a while about performance evaluation, working environment, how the office is one big family. When he finished, the clichés were making me sick, along with the sappy speech. "Tie me down and gag me with a 12-gauge." I thought. "……Which is why I have chosen Dan Johnson to replace me as head of Marketing." Everyone turned and stared at me. Nobody made a sound. It was so quiet, I almost heard my jaw hit the floor. "You are all dismissed, except you Johnson." Everyone around me got up and headed for the door. Harmony and Will both flashed thumbs-ups at me while Sarah smiled and winked at me.

"Johnson, lets head to my office."

"Sure thing Mr. Gorder."

"Call me Fred, the formal stuff gets annoying after a while." Mr. Gorder was about to sit down in his chair, when he said "You know what? Why don't you sit here? After all, it'll be yours in about a week." I sat down, unsure about what to say except "Wow, comfy."

Mr. Gorder laughed and patted me roughly on the back. "Oh you bet it is, now let's talk about whats going to be expected of you as head of Marketing."

"Alright Mr. Gor-uh, Fred."

"You'll be charged with overseeing the smooth progress of this new marketing campaign that we'll launch in roughly a month. Also, you'll be the one reviewing this department's reports, research, all that stuff."

Mr. Gorder continued with his briefing for about twenty minutes, until he saw the time, told me he get it to me on paper, and headed for the door. Just before he was going to run out, he stopped, turned and said "Hey, it's still my office for another week! Back to work!"


	3. Club Rio

Mr. Gorder gave me the rest of the day off, so I grabbed my coat and headed for the door. It was still raining, so I took a cab back to my apartment. The cab pulled up in front of my building at about one o'clock in the afternoon, and I had nothing to do. I decided to spend some much needed quality time with my bed. After taking the twelve flights of stairs to my apartment, I unlocked my door and went in. My briefcase and coat made a dull thud as they hit the floor. I stopped for a moment to look around. Since I was never here at this hour of the day during the week, my home felt different, looked different, and sounded different. The staccato of rain hitting the skylights, the way the afternoon light cast shadows, it all made the place seem more new and inviting. I kicked off my shoes, and practically dived into bed. I rolled over, and found a comfy position, staring at the digital alarm clock next to my bed. The red numbers looked back at me, as I gradually fell asleep.

I woke up, the clock read 8:00 PM. My phone rang, "Hello, Dan?" a familiar female voice said at the other end.

"Sarah? Hey, what's up?"

"Well evidently not you, did I wake you?"

"No, no, you didn't. I was just getting some much needed sleep. Frank-Mr. Gorder gave me the day off, so I headed home."

"Well congratulations on the promotion, and in honor of your gaining a rung on the corporate ladder, we're all going clubbing to night!"

"Wait, wait, wait a second, who's we? Clubbing?"

"You, me, Harmony, and Will is we, and PLEASE tell me you've gone clubbing before, for God's sake Dan, you live in New York! Do you know how many night clubs there are here?"

"I've gone clubbing once ore twice before, and no, I don't go to the opening of every new strip bar in New York, just to see the ribbon be cut."

"All right, well then I'll see you in about ten minutes. We'd have been there sooner, but Harmony's car wouldn't start, so we took Will's. Get ready, and I'm sure there's a story about why you're on a first name basis with that lecherous chauvinist who used to be our boss?" Sarah hung up and I ran to find some on-the-town clothes.

Sure enough, Will's silver Mini S pulled up. Harmony was in the front, Will was driving, and Sarah and I were in back. "You look………….wow." I sputtered. Sarah just smiled and shook her head. She was wearing a silver-sequined dress, her red-golden hair was down to about shoulder blade length. "Well you look wow too Dan." I smiled sheepishly and looked out the window.

"Hey Harmony, could you move your seat forward a bit, I'm chewing my kneecaps back here."

"Oh sure, you mean, like THIS?" She said as she slammed the seat back even further.

"Goddamn it Harmony! Your sense of humor is painful!" I said, rubbing my knees.

"Hey don't make me come back there!" Will said jokingly. "Now, for some music." Will hit a button on the Mini's radio, and all of a sudden British techno started blaring out of the speakers. "Oops, well at least no one will have any ear wax to worry about tonight." Harmony slugged him. "Hey, hey, hey! Don't give the driver a dead arm! Jeez, what are you, a fatalist?" It took us a little while to find a spot near our first stop. Before we even got out, a limo full of models and movie stars pulled up in front of the club and entered with their entourages. "Well I guess we can kiss this club goodbye, how in the hell can we dance if there's nothing but a bunch of floozies with hair spray on the brain flooding the place?" Harmony said.

"All right, how about Mauve? It's within walking distance of here." said Will. We got to Mauve and tried to get, but we were stopped by an odd looking guy, dressed all in purple. "Ya, see in dis club, vee only vare purple, unt I see no purple on you. Ok, Hans! Remover them!" Said the man in a German accent.

"Ok, that didn't work, how about Club Rio?" asked Harmony.

"Let's do it, it's better then standing outside a flamboyant strip club." said Sarah.

Will managed to get us through traffic and into a parking spot near Club Rio fairly quickly. We all got out and headed for the front entrance. A long line and a bouncer awaited us. A foursome, dressed way better then we were, went up to the door, and the bouncer turned them away. "Well screw that idea, we're never getting past that guy! He must be 6'4" and all muscle!" I said, doubting this idea of Sarah's.

"Leave this to me." Sarah said, as she walked up to him. She leaned up close to him, whispered to him, then he let the velvet rope down and motioned us in. "What did you say to him?" I asked.

"Please tell me that you didn't promise to get it on in the bathroom!" Harmony said frantically.

"Nothing of the sort! I simple told him that I was in a perfect position to, now how shall I put this, disable his cookies."

"Oh."


End file.
